21st Century Project

Artistic Celebration
for the 21st Century

Visual Art inspires New Music

To celebrate the 21st Century, Red Cedar Chamber Music commissioned seven new works for flute and guitar. The commissioning project is called Artistic Celebration for the 21st Century. The project was conceived by flutist, Jan Boland and guitarist, John Dowdall, directors of Red Cedar Chamber Music and supported, in part, by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council. Seven composers with diverse styles were commissioned to each write a three-minute work for flute and guitar, giving a total of twenty-one minutes of new music to celebrate the 21st Century and Jan and John’s 21st season as the Boland-Dowdall Flute and Guitar Duo. Three composers reside in New York City, three in Iowa, and one in California.

Each composer selected a work of visual art from the permanent collection of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art as the inspiration for the new composition. Donald Doe and Leslie Wright at the Cedar Rapids Museum of art were partners in this effort; they selected the art and facilitated the educational events and concerts surrounding the premieres. All seven works were premiered in concert by the Boland-Dowdall Duo at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art on February 12, 2000 in a gallery devoted to the display of the seven works of visual art. Five of the seven composers (Owen, Chenette, Nassif, Leisner, and Thow) were present and participated in the event. Visual artist James Michael Smith was also present and gave a pre-concert informal talk. The gallery was overflowing with concert-goers (about 140 present) who wished to view the art and hear the premiere.

Commissioned Musical Works

Hidden Tango

Jerry Owen

Fast Track

Jonathan Chenette

Caprice

Katherine Hoover

Caution to the Wind: get over it

Gary Schocker

River Bend

John Thow

Dear Departed

Robert Lindsey Nassif

El Coco (The Bogeyman)

David Leisner

Six of the works are published in an anthology called The Red Cedar Collection by Theodore Presser Co. (catalogue number 144-40414). Katherine Hoover’s Caprice is published by Papagena Press. Recorded on a compact disc titled The Red Cedar Collection –– released and available from Fleur de Son Classics (NY).

The Visual Art

The following images were selected by seven composers as the inspiration for seven new works for flute and guitar commissioned in 1999 by Red Cedar Chamber Music. The images are a part of the permanent collection at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The musical works were premiered at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (Cedar Rapids IA) on Saturday, February 12, 2000 by flutist Jan Boland and guitarist John Dowdall.

Courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Marvin Cone’s River Bend (1935)
Selected by John Thow for his composition River Bend for alto flute & guitar